- The power tradeoff they made for their portable console / dual-screen gimmick was absolutely not worth it - They though the casual-oriented mindset they had with the Wii would work a second time but it didn't - Nintendo did a terrible marketing job for the console's launch. It took many people a few months to even realize this was an actual new console and not just a new Wii version like a "Portable Wii" or something. Its launch went mostly unnoticed.

All of that is true as well with the OS needing half of the resources and how much the GamePad actually takes. If you look at pre-launch however they promised and showed third party support that would produce greater results than PS3 & Xbox 360. In many aspects they greatly failed there.

Games like Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, and others were touted by Nintendo to be the best on WiiU. Things like missing DLC & no real upgrade hindered those titles but by both faults being caused by Nintendo itself. Their network just isn't there plus the WiiU just isn't enough, particularly after being hindered by the OS and GamePad. The way they have it running to some extent is fine because yes, it works but it's very costly on the system.

If Nintendo had went with 4GB RAM even over two I think they'd be slightly more safe but opted to go with two. 4 would've left three for devs. Two only grants 1. If they'd have chose to give the GamePad its own actual insides rather than have it relying solely on the system for processing they might be in a different position.

There's a lot of ifs but ultimately I think many decisions made by Nintendo hindered the WiiU and ultimately cost them a lot of third party support. They also desperately need to get their network closer to modern times. It just lacks in a lot of places that should be possible but don't seem to be occurring with WiiU.

For what it's worth I wish they'd open up the 3DS to the WiiU as means of input instead of the GamePad and see what it could open up. The added resources could produce better results for the WiiU as it goes out and give it a little boost. I don't see it matching PS4/Xbox One but a boost none the less. Could also be a means to move more 3DSs and in particular this newest iteration.

Yes fans of Nintendo like myself will always buy Nintendo hardware but to get a large majority of people buying it has to be just as good if not better by itself than other consoles. Currently the Wii U is in a secondary console position where most people only buy it after they have already chosen a XB1 or PS4.

Never gonna happen. Western Developers will either not support from start or abandon after.

Level-5 Square Enix - Already talked about Dragon Quest and FFXIV being on it. Capcom Sega Atlus Namco Bandai Mistwalker Platinum Games Spike Chunsoft - Who has already express interest in developing for the platform. KOEI Tecmo Marvelous AQL Arc System Work and they Japanese Publishers and Developers is going to be Nintendo key to success.

After the GameCube came out and Iwata took over, he got rid of Nintendo of America's autonomy, hurting relationships with western developers, right when the West was becoming a powerhouse in the games industry going into the 7th gen of consoles. Because of this, in combination with weaker hardware, the Wii and Wii U had poor third-party support from the West.

If they can bring competitive hardware and undo the damage with western developers, this could be a successful console.

Without "support" in the form of money, it will be more and more difficult for Nintendo to get third party developers on the nX after the Wii and the Wii U that demonstrated that third party games have rarely success on Nintendo consoles.

Its mostly Nintendo fans now buying Nintendo consoles for Nintendo games, and the developers know that.

Whilst I do think it's a mistake that Nintendo are putting out another system so soon after Wii U, I will say that they certainly aren't in any financial difficulty like Sega was. They made bank during the Wii years and even made a tidy sum on the DS and currently with the 3DS. Nintendo are smart with their cash, I don't think they'll be going anywhere soon.

@mamotte I dunno man, maybe it's just me. It might be because, as you say, the games are lacking a bit in quantity. What we've had have been the usual high quality you'd expect from Nintendo, though the lack of 3rd party support has shown a bit I think.

The real question is, will the NX be handicapped with yet another silly gimmick, or will it be a full-featured, solidly designed console? Has Nintendo learned the lesson, that gimmicks alone aren't enough to attract gamers to their hardware? Time will tell, but it's hard to be optomistic, when all their gaming hardware for over a decade has been based on gimmicks.

I really hope whatever that handheld thing is better be optional otherwise I dont see this taking off. They've been riding that gimmick train hoping it'll stick for far too long now people just want a powerfull traditional system that can compete so we'll see ;)

It would be nice for them to name it the Ultra Nintendo, with the spec's to match the feeling of the word "Ultra", along with following suit with their OG naming convention; Nintendo > Super Nintendo > Ultra Nintendo (Yes I excluded Nintendo 64 only because let's be honest, the N64 is Legendary and has always been in a league of it's own for good reason haha) and grab the attention of all Triple A developers including "mature audience companies" such as Rockstar, etc.

It'd also be nice to finally see a damn Street Fighter on a Nintendo Console too lol.

All this system needs to do is achieve 1080p 60FPS. Thats it. Do what Microsoft and Sony could not do. If your marketing is that this is the system that plays third party titles the best, combined with the first party Nintendo titles you love, you hit the gate running. Easier said than done though...

They lacked 3rd party support on the Wii and the Wii U. If the New console can be at least equivalent to the PS4/X1 or better in performance, every multiplatform title should be able to be ported over to the NX.

By the time the NX launches the PS4+Xb1 will have a very large install base. Nintendo will probably need to shell out some cash to get companies to bother porting to the NX until they can sell enough consoles to make it worthwhile.

And if it flops like the Wii U then I expect most third party developers won't ever bother with a Nintendo console again.

Eh, iffy. I could see them finding a sweet spot between Xbox One and PS4 just to keep costs a little lower.

I'm just wondering what they're going to choose for physical media. If rumors are true and they aren't planning on having any sort of optical drive... I dunno. It's just way, way risky and could be costly. Look at the backlash from Xbox Ones reveal with forced online check-in. Nintendo'd be pushing that direction a tad.

Sony has a problem with supporting and marketing some of their hardware and accessories but to call them lazy and copycats is a bit fanboyish especially when their products are higher quality no matter there sales. The move gets crapped on but truthfully the tech was much superior to the wii and to this day remains the only mass produced motion gaming peripheral to achieve true 1-1 accuracy. The vita has not had the support but what gimmicks were they ripping off? And the hardware quality in comparison is not even close. They were just reaching for a market already over saturated by smartphones.

Most likely. All it needs is to be X86 and technically XBO level for devs to support it from a power perspective.

But they also need a userbase, so the NX needs to be above PS4 power, which really isn't hard for a 2016 launch.

A $299-339 2016, Nvidia 16nm PC GPU will likely be 6-10 TFlops.

Which means they could easily be in the 4-6 TFlop range, which is likely 1-2 notches lower, think the equivalent of a GTX 1050 or GTX 1060.

I don't know if it'll be Nvidia or ATI, but with Nvidia, they'd have access to the gameworks features that aren't available with PS4/XB1 which would aid in differentiation.... differentiation that would be used since they devs make use of it for the PC side.

Nintendo, right now is at a crossroads between being the guy that got in the party 3 years late or the guy that arrived just too soon...What they need is 3º party support, good price, strong exclusives and a goddamn miracle!

"Nintendo loosens their stranglehold on their own IP to allow developers to do interesting and unique things with Nintendo licenses"

For starters Nintendo is already the first , when not often the only one out of the big three that allowed other external studios to use their existing ips . They did so with capcom , square , tecmo , since at least the snes (Super Mario RPG anyone ?) .

And even if they didnt , why should they be the ones , out of the same three , to do so ? What they would need is to build up more new studios , or acquire more studios ... not give away their licenses for others to develop

Considering their means , and how quickly they and their fans boasted about them sitting on years of cash even in the hypothetical event of multiple consoles flops ... it's a mediocre excuse .

They could have expanded better , and exploited less intensively some franchises , but decided not to .

Anyway my earlier point is that they were already pioneer in giving access to their ip to other studios . They did almost each generation . And they shouldnt be the one everyone expect to do so , when they already did , and got means to do otherwise .

I don't see why that "burden" should automatically fall on them out of the big three

The bias against nintendo is strong and the writers tend to write in this manner because they believe it is popular. The truth is they are going mobile, wiiu, nx and 3ds all at the same time and some one better get out of the way. People are getting scared! Nintendo just made a Jr pc that plays nintendo games how about that?

Honestly, if Nintendo getting thiRd party support means that the library is going to be inundated with games that are complete rip offs with 50 dollar season passes,I'm not interested in the slightest.

i care because it is a disgrace. i dont want these kinds of business practices permeating my gaming space. the more widespread it becomes, the more widely accepted/acceptable it becomes. i dont care if this stuff is happening on ps4 and x1. they can do business however they want and they can see where it gets them. but i would be severely disappointed if this kind of crap started leaking into this area of the gaming industry. of course i welcome quality third party experiences that have some value.. that goes without saying.

we arent talking about games that are outright garbage, we are talking about games with shady business practices. that was the whole point of my post. i dont buy into that garbage, so i was saying for me PERSONALLY, that i wasnt interested in it in the slightest. read my original post.

"we arent talking about games that are outright garbage, we are talking about games with shady business practices."

And i was covered both . The console didnt magically avoid games with dubious dlc or online drm practices or buggy titles because of some protection from Nintendo or better policies . it was just abandonned as a viable platform .

And as it stands , the console lost more goods coming its way , that it dodged iffy practices and bullets

specs arent what drove 3rd party away and its not whats going to bring them back. nintendo needs proof of sales.

also i see a few idiots in the comments saying nintendo tried to appeal to casuals again with wiiU...umm every market targets casuals...casuals make up the bulk of just about every industry...the "core" crowd is small and irrelevant...these companys give off the illusion of catering to the "hardcore" because it creates a superiority vibe in the advertising campaign and delusional fanboys and bias media journalist spew the rhetoric and it spreads to the point that no the line that separates fact, opinion and fiction blurs. the irony is those with the loudest voice online think they are "hardcore gamers" but really they are considered casuals in modern gaming

Release in china first... boom 3 billion sales game over lol. Release the handheld here in the west.. boom n3ds bc, new gamepad option. Send out zelda on the wiiu. Starfox metroid... plug it all in to an nx console bam upgrade. Release nx home console in the west. Continue scaling games, releasing mobile games that advertise what they are missing. Release a type c usb ready console announce nVidia as partner for optional kit external cards. Bam print more money.

I don't think that weaker hardware was ever a problem in the industry, in fact some of the best selling console weren't power houses.

What I think caused it's downfall is the fact that it was too different it cost more money to develop for a system with a different architecture and control scheme. If Nintendo wants to succeed in the console market place they unfortunately need to leave their innovation behind.

Well i hope that NX will be a successful console, I won't buy it because I don't like Nintendo exclusives that much and I already own both x1 and ps4 so I don't want to invest in another console I will rather save that money for the next Xbox and ps5, but like I said I want all the success for nx

Unless Nintendo changes I don't think so. They always seem to do something really innovative but then will do something stupid that hamstrings 3rd party devs. I hope I'm wrong but I don't see it happening.

When has spec's ever been the thing that kept Dev's from Nintendo? Wasn't some of the reasons why Dev's stayed away from some Nintendo consoles was because of how they were treated in the past? Also the whole thing about how 3rd party games don't sell every well on Nintendo console?

GameCube had specs that were on par with PS2 and Xbox and still missed out on multiplats. Wii U specs that were on parity with PS3 and 360 and still missed out on many multiplats.

Pretty safe to assume that NX will be in the same boat. Not only because there'll be a far greater amount of PS4 and XB1 users for third parties to cater to by the time it launches but also because third party games still don't sell well enough on Nintendo consoles to warrant serious investments from the majority of third party publishers. That's a combination of why GCN and Wii U missed out on so many multiplats.